, 1887-07-12
How STURGEON ARE CAUGHT.
Details of an Exciting Business-A Night
in the Channel.

1S
in the Channel.
There is at least 800, 900 invested in
the sturgeon fishing interest in the New
Jersey end of the line, with headquarters
mt Bay Side, Cumberland county. Tie
sturgeon grow rapidly, and a fish of six
years old weighs 300 pounds. 4 big
sturgeon yields from four to six Yankee
buckets of roe like unto shad roe, with
larger eggs, which are first rubbed
through a coarse sisve, then sailed and
rubbed through a finer sieve till the fiber
is disengaged from the egg, and the re-
mainder, after draining, is emptied into
kegs and becomes what Shakespeare calls
''caviare 10 the general" 1t is then
shipped via New York to Europe, where
the supply is not equh to the demand.
The modus operandi with a sturgeon
is to n off his tail and let him bleed,
the large artery running through the
tail. The roe is then taken out Of the
live fish. A broadaxe is used to decapi-
tate the fish, then the skin is taken of,
the backbone or cartilage is then taken
out with a sharp knife and leaves two
sturgeon sides boneless. The fish is
thoroughly wiped out with n coarse
w~halebone broom. then the flesh is put
into an ice box and is shipped TO New
York, where it readily sells as good cal
bany beef. If the market is glutted
the sturgeon meat is kept till fall in the
ice house at a temperature of 4 deg. be-
low zero. and is then found good eating.
The head, tail and backbone furnish the
famous sturgeon oil.
The sturgeon has no weapon of de-
Tense against the shark and flies from.
this lawyer of the sea. l found two stur-
geon III the haul made by moonlight with
the entire nose bitten off by a shark. 4
net entirely dry weighs 500 pounds, the
cotton laid Irvine alone weighing 300
pounds, costing twenty cents u pound.
The meshes of the net are from thirteen
To fifteen inches wide, and n sixteen foot
board twelve inches wide can be shot
through the net, so no shad or small fish
are ever caught in a sturgeon net. A
sixty pound rock is sometimes found in
the sturgeon gill net. The net is 1928
rat long, sever feet under water. with
no lead or other sinker, the weight of the
Irvine holding the net down. The float
cor cork remains on top of the water fast
to the lanyard, which is fast to the float.
vt each drift, say two hours before low
water, from II to ten sturgeon is the
catch, and a cork indicates when a big
fish gets his gills entangled in the meshes
of the net. Thu fish yields easily to fate
and shows no game.
The water at Tampa is transparent.
and a spear is used to kill the fish, but
h fisherman is desperately vexed with
what he calls foul fish" the sawiish
and devilfish. The latter, weighing 1,GOO
pounds, frequently tear a net to pieces,
and the sight of a sawfish drives a fisher
man to shore. Frequently a 400 pound
green turtle is bagged-with no market
for turtle.
The sturgeon feeds down on the bottom
on the crustacea and can be seen roofing
like a hog ON the bottom. The savants
or scientists have never discovered where
the sturgeon spawns. and it may be in
the Black sea or in Delaware bay where
the she sturgeon has beer seen to shed
her spawn on the surface of the bay or
river in the months of April and May
New York Mail and Express.